Every player encrypts and shuffles every card

You encrypt and shuffle each card of the deck on your computer. This ensures that no one - not even us - can see your cards or manipulate the dealing of the cards.

You verify the correctness of the game on your computer

The entire poker protocol runs on the client side (your browser). This means that if any player tries to somehow manipulate the game, the cards would not decrypt correctly on your side.

Attempts at disrupting the game are penalized

When a player enters a table, he automatically puts down a security deposit equivalent to his buy in. If this player attempts to disrupt the poker protocol, he loses his deposit.

FAQ & Details.

What is provably fair poker?

In a provably fair poker game you can yourself verify that the game was fair during the entire round - you know for sure that no one can manipulate the dealing of the cards and no one see your cards except yourself.

Can you see my cards?

Since you encrypt your cards yourself, on the client side, and then only send us the ciphertexts - you know for sure that we cannot see your cards.

For the game to be "provably fair" should't it be on the blockchain?

No. Blockchains are extremely slow and inefficient. Provably fair means that you can yourself verify the fairness of the game - you don't need a blockchain for that. By using cryptography only where it is needed we achieve great performance and efficiency, while still keeping the game fair.

Only bitcoin?

Yes, we plan to have games denominated in bitcoin only. Having a single chip makes the site liquidity much better than having multiple chips. Liquidity is needed to maintain a good game experience.